A poem is a poem – what else could it be? The German poet Gerhard Falkner is eager to try out new ways of presenting his work. Collaborations with other artists, filmmakers, graphic and sound designers are the results of his curiosity towards new shapes and dimensions of poetry.

In an interview with lyrikline he describes the two steps of his artistic process. During the creation of a poem the dimension of sound is already included: “Denken ist hören” – “thinking is listening” and cannot be separated from writing or reading. But the access to poetry differs: Reading and listening are two possibilities with different advantages. The second step of the process comes after the production when the “original” poem is already concluded. In collaborations Falkner describes himself as a tree that is being put in scene by a fence or a poster: It is still the tree but it is being looked at differently. His openness towards working together with other artists anticipates the recognition of different energies. Text, sound and action must profit from the coincident presentation. The first performance of Das Wort by Gerhard Falkner and Sound Designer Johannes Malfatti at the LiteraturwerkstattBerlin demonstrates the synergy of improvisation and montage of text and sound.